Final Arrangements

"Thanks, brother. Treat him like a servant day to day, and when you have time, give him a few pointers on swordsmanship. The kid's wild and stubborn, but he isn't bad, and he works hard. I'll feel better knowing he's with you. I won't have to worry about him anymore." El looked deeply grateful.

Lorist waved a hand and smiled. "Come on, we're brothers. No need to thank me. Besides, I've moved into the Golden Instructor Residential District at the academy. The house is huge, and I was wondering how I'd manage it alone. Now you've sent me a free servant. I should be thanking you."

"Oh, right. What was that other thing I came to see you about?" After thanking Lorist for his help, El tried to remember his second reason for coming.

"Let's see. I was with Ledos when Giro, the fruit seller, sent word that you were back. I was about to come find you, and Ledos said something when he heard you'd returned. Something about Brother Laude? Brother Laude... the neighboring districts, Councilor Ummobard, that dirty old man... Ah! I remember!" El had paced around the room in frustration, muttering to himself until it finally came to him.

"Heh, Brother Locke, did you get that thing I asked you to bring back from the Ruins Archipelago?" El rubbed his hands together, wearing a lecherous grin.

"You mean the Terence Donkey Whip? It took a lot of trouble, but I got one. Old Garilando confiscated it, though. Your uncle said you haven't been training properly lately and spend all your time on top of women. He said needing that thing to boost your virility at your age was outrageous, so he's keeping it. If you need it, go ask him for it." Lorist repeated Old Garilando's words faithfully.

"What? My uncle took it?" El shot to his feet. "What nonsense! That damn old man's always making trouble for me. I'm in great shape. I don't need the thing! I asked you to get it as a gift to grease the wheels with that dirty old man, Councilor Ummobard. Old Issy, who runs the two districts next to mine, wants to quit. We've already agreed that I'll take over their management after the new year. All we need now is for that old lecher Ummobard to lobby the city council for us, and it's settled."

A man really couldn't stand having his prowess questioned. Lorist laughed at El's indignation, then asked, puzzled, "Wait, El. Doesn't city hall limit each organization to three districts? You already have three. Will the city council let you take on the two next door?"

"It was Ledos's idea. Brother Laude will be the one in charge. We'll supply half the people, and we'll pick the other half from the people Old Issy leaves behind. Then we'll form a new organization to manage those two districts. On paper, we'll be separate. In practice, we'll be one family." El huffed. "That old Ummobard is insatiable. Last time I sent him a hundred gold coins, and he still wouldn't commit. He only said he'd do his best to help. Then he went on and on about how effective Terence Donkey Whip was. When I got back, Ledos said the old man wanted some. Since you were heading to the Ruins Archipelago, I asked you to get one. I hope it keeps him going so well he dies on top of a woman, just like he'd want."

El was only saying that. He didn't actually want Ummobard to die on top of a woman. That would cause him even more trouble and expense: he'd have to spend another fortune finding a councilor willing to speak for them.

Lorist thought for a moment and offered El an idea. When he'd obtained the Terence Donkey Whip in the Ruins Archipelago, he'd asked how it was used. A single thin slice before the act was enough to keep a man going all night, and the one he'd brought back was long and heavy enough to yield a hundred or two slices. He suggested El slice it first, then commission a batch of attractive glass bottles. With a dozen or so slices preserved in medicinal wine in each bottle, the gifts would look finer, and their recipients would feel more honored. Most importantly, El could control the supply. His original plan had been to give the whole thing to Ummobard, which would last the old man three years. The next time they needed his help, he'd demand another outrageous price.

"That's right! Why didn't I think of that? You've thought this through, brother." El brightened. Lorist's suggestion opened up a whole new possibility, and he took the idea further at once. "Maybe we could make a business of it. Send people to the Ruins Archipelago and buy up every Terence Donkey Whip there, even if we have to pay two or three times the usual price. We'll bring them back, slice them, package them the way you said, and sell them. I bet the profits would be good. The glass bottles might be a problem, though."

Lorist nodded. The bottles were indeed a problem. Only two kinds of glass products were available in Galintea. One was green glass, made in small, lake-green panes. It wasn't very transparent and was only suitable for windows, but it was cheap. The other was oil glass, clear and transparent. It was used specifically for test tubes and glassware such as teapots, wine vessels, cups, plates, and bowls, and it was expensive.

Both kinds were specialties of the Kingdom of Trinber, southwest of the Forde Commercial Alliance. Trinber had a vast mountain of quartz, the main ingredient in both kinds of glass. Their formulas were among the kingdom's greatest secrets, guarded fiercely against theft. Legend held that during the era of Magic Civilization, mages had used magic arrays to produce glassware of incomparable beauty. The arrival of the End of Magic Age had brought all that prosperity to nothing.

One mage had devoted himself to finding formulas and methods for making green glass and oil glass without magic arrays. He passed them down to his children. Later, when the Kingdom of Trinber was founded, his descendants presented the family's methods and formulas to the King and were granted the title of Grand Duke. The two kinds of glass became specialties of Trinber.

Lorist had seen both kinds. He suspected green glass was cloudy because impurities in its ingredients hadn't been properly removed. What puzzled him was that Trinber had produced it for a century without apparently thinking to improve the process. Neither the size nor the quality of its panes had advanced at all. They really had no ambition.

Oil glass, on the other hand, was unlike any glass Lorist had seen in his previous life. It looked much like ordinary clear glass, but it had a strange quality: its surface seemed oily, and nothing would stick to it. Legend said mages had made enormous experimental apparatuses from it. They could observe their experiments easily, then rinse the apparatuses with water afterward without any residue clinging to the glass.

Lorist had tested it himself, coating an oil-glass test tube with various adhesives. When he checked a day and a night later, the adhesives had dried. But as soon as he picked up the tube and shook it, the dried coating fell away like a sheet of paper. It truly couldn't stick to oil glass.

When Lorist designed the ladies' fashion boutique, glass had given him no end of headaches. Green glass wouldn't do, and oil glass wasn't made in flat panes. In the end, he spent more than a dozen extra gold coins on a large quantity of white crystal and hired craftsmen to cut it into flat pieces. He had the leftover fragments made into crystal chandeliers, solving two problems at once.

"The commonest oil-glass test tubes sell for a large silver coin each, and finely made oil-glass tea sets cost several gold coins. Have someone design a bottle, then ask in Trinber how much it would cost to commission. Anything under one gold coin would work. You can count it as part of the cost. The more beautiful the packaging, the higher you can set the price. The people buying this stuff will think it's worth it. The more expensive it is, the more prestige it gives them," Lorist told El.

"Now that you put it that way, I'm sure it'll be good business. I can't stay here. I have to get to the tavern before that damn old man uses it himself. That would be a real loss." El made ready to return to the Red Raven Tavern and retrieve the item from Garilando.

Lorist laughed and scolded him. "Don't talk nonsense. What would Old Garilando use it for? And stop arguing with your uncle all the time. He's looking out for you. Also, it cost me eighteen Gold Fudes to get it. Remember to pay the cashier."

"Uh, maybe you haven't heard. Last month, my damn old uncle proposed to Louise, and she accepted. In two months, she'll be the proprietress of the Red Raven Tavern. What was that old man doing all these years? He's nearly sixty, and now he decides to bloom again. He's almost twice Louise's age. I can't believe she agreed. Now tell me, can I leave that thing in my damn old uncle's hands?" El had dropped quite a piece of news on Lorist.

"Is that true?" Lorist sat up straight.

"Of course. Everyone knows. It happened a month ago. You only just got back, so they probably forgot to tell you," El said.

Lorist was sincerely happy for Louise. Finding someone to share her life with was worth celebrating. Old Garilando was a good man. He was older, but as a Gold Swordsman, he was much stronger than an ordinary man. In a year or two, he might even give El a younger brother or sister.

"Looks like I'll need to prepare a wedding gift for Old Garilando and Louise," Lorist said.

"You've got two months. Take your time choosing, and pick one for me too. I can't be bothered. Just thinking about it gives me a headache." El looked at Lorist. "I'm heading back to the Red Raven Tavern. Want to come?"

"No. I'll spend one last night here. Send a few carriages over tomorrow morning to help move these books and my other things to the academy. You can send that boy who wants to learn swordsmanship over to me then, too."

"All right. I'm off." El vanished without a sound, as though he'd never been in the room.

Dawn gradually broke. The city stirred from its silence, the sounds of carts, horses, and voices swelling together. Molent City was once again full of life.

Lorist spent the night at his desk. He watched the silver moonlight slowly withdraw from the room, the twin moons disappear beyond the horizon, brilliant clouds gather in the eastern sky, and the newborn sun show its smiling face.

It was a new day and a fresh beginning.

He heard the servants talking and moving about downstairs. Before long, someone knocked on his door.

Rina came in with another maid. They brought Lorist a generous breakfast, just as they had every morning for the past three years.

Rina's eyes were swollen. It seemed she'd cried the night before.

She sent the other maid away and stayed to serve Lorist breakfast.

Lorist looked at her swollen eyes with an amused smile. "Why didn't you roll a couple of eggs over them? It's good for the swelling."

"I'm fine. I was just too busy and forgot." Rina turned away so Lorist couldn't see her face.

"Ah..." Lorist rose, went to the bookshelf, and pulled out a thick volume. Mulberry Paper covered its binding, with the title The Fantastic Journey of Knight Mingulak written on it. It looked like a popular tale of a knight's adventures.

Lorist set the book in front of Rina. "Rina, this is for you."

Rina froze. Lorist smiled. "I know you're like the young mistress. You don't enjoy these novels and think their authors make up nonsense to take people's money. But open it. There's a surprise inside."

Doubtfully, Rina opened the book, then clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. Every page held colorful designs for women's clothing.

"I drew these last year. The young mistress saw some of them before and wanted to make them all and put them on the market. I stopped her. Releasing too many designs at once would create confusion, and we'd lose our grip on fashion trends. That would cut into our profits. So over the past few years, we've released only a little over a hundred designs. With the changes you've made to them, that's been enough to meet our customers' needs. There are more than three hundred new designs in here that no one has seen. I'm giving them to you, Rina."

"D-does the young mistress know?" Rina held the book as though it were a hot stove, unable to put it down despite the heat.

"She knows about them, but not how many I drew. See the mess she made of this room? She was looking for the designs. She didn't know I'd gathered them all together and disguised them as this book, sitting right here on the shelf, so she couldn't find them. Maybe she thought I resented her. She didn't ask me for them last night, either." Lorist's smile turned a little bitter.

"What I'm about to say must stay between you and your father. Don't tell anyone else. Understood?" Lorist met Rina's eyes.

"I-I can sw-swear..." Rina stammered.

"Tell your father, Knight Som, that I think the Windsor Family is being very unwise to throw its full support behind the Lofei Family. The young mistress is determined to marry into the Lofei Family and become a Marchioness. She thinks that will bring the Windsor Family protection. But if the Lofei Family ever sets its sights on what the Windsors own, they'll have nowhere to turn. Selling off their holdings in Molent City is especially dangerous. It cuts off their way back. No one can stop her now. All we can do is pray Marquis Rophie is sincere toward her and has no other motives."

"Yesterday, the young mistress mentioned that the Marquis has a plan to deal a fatal blow to the four lords occupying your family's lands. Afterward, he'll give the Windsor Family a territory in compensation. She'll grant that territory to your father and make him a baron. If all goes well, you'll soon be a noble lady, Rina. When that happens, remind your father that he can yield to the Lofei Family on other matters, but there are two things he must never agree to."

"First, Young Master Windsor is only eleven. Don't let him accept lordly education or Knight Training from the Lofei Family, in case something happens. He'll be safest with your father. When he's older, send him to study in Molent City, far from the Lofei Family. Second, when he grows up, the Lofei Family will likely propose a marriage alliance. To prevent that, remind your father to find a suitable match and arrange his marriage as soon as possible, before they can interfere."

"One last thing concerns you, Rina. Don't let anyone know about the designs I've given you. Not the young mistress, and not Susie. The young mistress has decided to reopen the boutique in Qigda's royal capital because the Marquis will arrange everything for her. I'm worried the Windsor ladies' fashion boutique will end up in the Lofei Family's hands. If it does, the designs you hold will be the key to starting over. If anyone learns you have so many, you could be in danger. So you must keep them secret. Understand?"

Rina nodded frantically, her small face flushed and her eyes misting over again.

"If the Lofei Family means no harm, the boutique in the royal capital will remain the young mistress's. You can bring out one design every month or two and say you created it. Truly, Rina, you've always overseen the production of the clothes and the changes to their details. You have talent. Having your own ideas is what matters most in design. Once you're known as a master of women's fashion, no one will question it when you introduce new styles."

Lorist glanced out the window. "The carriages are here. It's time for us to say goodbye. Do you remember everything I said?"

"I do, Young Master Locke. I'll do as you said."